art biography

Softcover. Hanover NH, University Press of New England, reprint, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 679 pages, b&w illustrations. Georgia O'Keeffe is arguably the 20th century's leading woman artist. Coming of age along with American modernism, her life was rich in intense relationships -- with family, friends, and especially noted photographer Alfred Stieglitz. Her struggle between the rigorous demands of love and work resulted in extraordinary accomplishments. Her often-eroticized flowers, bones, stones, skulls, and pelvises became extremely well known to a broad American public. The New York Times Book Review named this richly detailed and moving biography a Notable Book of the Year. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. New York, New York Graphic Society Books, 2nd pr., 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 306 pages. b&w and color illustrations throughout. Exceptional copy. Based on the Exhibition at the National Gallery(1988-1989), "Georgia O'Keeffe: 1887-1986" 120 color and 11 black and white illustrations. The book is complemented by documentary photographs and portraits as well as over 120 letters--most of them never published before--written to artists, critics, and friends.

Softcover. London, Anthony D'Offay Gallery, 1st, 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, Unpaginated (49 pages) with 29 illustrations 21 in color. Published on the occasion of the exhibition from the Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London 11 March-16 April 1988. Selected Biography and Bibliography. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Harry N. Abrams, 1st, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 128 pages, illustrated throughout in color and b&w, INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR on front end paper. Light shelf-wear to dust jacket with small crumbled tear to rear cover. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. London, Phaidon, 1st, 2005, Hardcover, 360 pages. A compelling insight into Gilbert & George's everyday enigma. The artists' unfailing politeness, consideration for others and open nature exert an irresistible charm. But it's Jonquet's walks with G & G around their home patch of Spitalfields that shed new light on the work, lavishly illustrated with accompanying personal photos.

Hardcover. London, Phaidon, 1st, 2005, Hardcover, 360 pages. A compelling insight into Gilbert & George's everyday enigma. The artists' unfailing politeness, consideration for others and open nature exert an irresistible charm. But it's Jonquet's walks with G & G around their home patch of Spitalfields that shed new light on the work, lavishly illustrated with accompanying personal photos.

Hardcover. New York, Kennedy Galleries, Inc., & Da Capo Press, reprint, 1969, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Biography of painter Gilbert Stuart. Contains 7 black/white illustrations; 6 are reproductions of Stuart's work, and one is a portrait of the artists himself. Very good condition; brown cloth with gilt lettering, corner of the back cover bumped. This edition is an unabridged republication of the first edition published in Cambridged, Massachusetts, in 1932. It is reprinted by arrangement with Harvard University Press.

Hardcover. Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill, 1st, 1952, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, green cloth with gilt lettering, 326 pages, b&w plates. The story of the sculptor who carved the faces of America's heroic dead on granite mountains, most prominently, Mount Rushmore. Previous owner's name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean. Mild shelf-wear.

Hardcover. Cambridge, MD, Tidewater Publishers, 2nd pr., 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, 295 pages. Hardcover. B/w illustrations throughout. Light green cloth cover boards, gilt title on spine. Decorated endpapers. Dust jacket unclipped, has a touch of agewear (see images). Pages clean. Binding tight. Spine straight. By word, painting adn sketch, Mr. Tawes recalls with Bay salt and spice that tiny postage stamp of America he christens "the Creek Country."

Hardcover. NY, Four Winds Press, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Illustrated biography of England's Queen Elizabeth I, written for young readers. Art by Diane Stanley. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New York, Knopf, 1st US, 1968, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 398 pages. Illustrated with 24 pages of black & white photographs. Light foxing to page fore edges. Light wear to price clipped dust jacket. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. New York, Tim Duggan Books, 1st, 2017, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 248 pages, b&w illustrations. The first great portrait photographer, a pioneering balloonist, the first person to take an aerial photograph, and the prime mover behind the first airmail service, Nadar was one of the original celebrity artist-entrepreneurs. A kind of 19th-century Andy Warhol, he knew everyone worth knowing and photographed them all, conferring on posterity psychologically compelling portraits of Manet, Sarah Bernhardt, Delacroix, Daumier and countless others--a priceless panorama of Parisian celebrity. Born Gaspard-Felix Tournachon, he adopted the pseudonym Nadar as a young bohemian, when he was a budding writer and cartoonist. Later he affixed the name Nadar to the facade of his opulent photographic studio in giant script, the illuminated letters ten feet tall, the whole sign fifty feet long, a garish red beacon on the boulevard. Nadar became known to all of Europe and even across the Atlantic when he launched "The Giant," a gas balloon the size of a twelve-story building, the largest of its time. With his daring exploits aboard his humongous balloon (including a catastrophic crash that made headlines around the world), he gave his friend Jules Verne the model for one of his most dynamic heroes.

Hardcover. US, Fantagraphics Books, 1st, 2017, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 79 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. A graphic novel of the German artist's life, b&w art by author. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. Seattle, Fantagraphics Books, 1st, 2017, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 79 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. A graphic novel of the German artist's life, b&w art by author. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Harper & Row , 1st, 1973, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 383 pages. Illustrated with black & white plates. A vivid picture of French art and society in the revolutionary years of the mid-nineteenth century. Previous owners name at top of front endpaper. Clean, tight copy. Dust jacket spine faded.

Hardcover. Seattle, Fantagraphics, 1st, 2025, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in pictorial boards. The first of a new six-volume series collecting the sketches and notes behind Hal Foster's creation of the Prince Valiant comic strip. In the works for several years, Hal Foster's Prince Valiant Sketchbooks: An Illustrated Memoir presents never-before-published Prince Valiant art by the strip's legendary creator, Hal Foster, collected in a series of six annotated portfolio volumes. Part sketchbooks, part biography, part tutorial, part memoir-Hal Foster's Prince Valiant Sketchbooks is an unprecedented look into Foster's personal life and creative process during his final nine years on the strip. It's also a fascinating look behind the curtains as Foster coached and interacted with his chosen successor: John Cullen Murphy. Produced with the full permission and participation of the Foster and Murphy families, this series is a testament to author and Prince Valiant historian Brian M. Kane's research prowess and determination to bring Hal Foster's creative process to light. This uniquely intimate view of Foster's creative process is a long-awaited dream come true for Prince Valiant fans. Over the course of these volumes, Kane annotates with painstaking clarity and thoroughness 366 penciled layout pages, 40 character sketches, and 577 text pages of Foster's descriptions and instructions for each panel. Also featured are an additional 143 pieces of art, mostly by Foster, 100 photographs detailing his life and career, and 123 personal letters and notes, all adding immeasurably to this exploration of Foster's life and art, as well as his collaboration with Murphy. With autographed bookplate signed by Kane. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Seattle, Fantagraphics , 1st, 2025, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial boards, 144 pages. Never-before-published Prince Valiant art by the strip's legendary creator, Hal Foster, collected in a series of six annotated portfolio volumes. Part sketchbooks, part biography, part tutorial, part memoir. Hal Foster's Prince Valiant Sketchbooks is an unprecedented look into Foster's personal life and creative process during his final nine years on the strip. It's also a fascinating look behind the curtains as Foster coached and interacted with his chosen successor: John Cullen Murphy. Produced with the full permission and participation of the Foster and Murphy families, this series is a testament to author and Prince Valiant historian Brian M. Kane's research prowess and determination to bring Hal Foster's creative process to light. This uniquely intimate view of Foster's creative process is a long-awaited dream come true for Prince Valiant fans. With an illustrated bookplate SIGNED BY EDITOR KANE. DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Softcover. NY, Vanguard, 2nd pr., 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 208 pages. The first comprehensive biography of Hal Foster (1892-1982). Brian Kane examines the 70-year career of one of the greatest illustrators of the 20th century. Included are more than 100 photographs of Foster, his family and friends, as well as a 16-page color section.

Softcover. Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, 2nd pr., 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover in pictorial wrappers, 255 pages. Color and black and white illustrations throughout. Second paperback printing. Bright and clean. Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/8-1543), one of the most versatile and admired painters of the Northern Renaissance, trained under his father in Augsburg and then worked for leading patrons in Switzerland before settling in England as Court Painter to Henry VIII. To commemorate the five-hundredth anniversary of the artist's birth, Oskar Batschmann and Pascal Griener offer this richly illustrated book the first comprehensive monograph on the artist to appear in more than forty years which is a major advance in our understanding of Holbein's contribution to European art.

Hardcover. London, England, Adam & Charles Black, 1st Larger Size Edition, 1909, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 204 pages. Hardcover. Color illustrations throughout. Top edge gilt. Deckled edges. Previous owner's book plate and pen marks on front endpapers. Front hinge cracked, binding still good. Red decorated cover boards, gilt title on spine (faded). Pages have some foxing and tanning from age. Illustrations still very vivid and in excellent condition. Artist memoir and beautiful look at her life in England, painted by her own hand. DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. Angel City Press, 1st, 2022, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, profusely illustrated, 208 pages. When Jean Harlow became the Blonde Bombshell, it was all Hollywood's doing. She was the first big-screen sex symbol, the Platinum Blonde, the mold for every famous fair-haired superstar who would emulate her. Yes; even Marilyn Monroe followed Harlow's lead. In her short decade in Hollywood, Harlow created a new genre of movie star--her fans idolized her for her peerless image, her beautiful body, and her gorgeous facade. Harlow in Hollywood is the story of how a town and an industry created her, a story that's never been told before. In these pages, renowned Harlow expert Darrell Rooney and Hollywood historian Mark Vieira team to present the most beautiful--and accurate--book on Harlow ever produced. With more than 280 rare images, the authors not only make a case for Harlow as an Art Deco artifact, they showcase the fabulous places where she lived, worked and played from her white-on-white Beverly Glen mansion to the Art Deco sets of Dinner at Eight to the foyer of the Cafe Trocadero. Still in publisher's shrink wrap.

Hardcover. New York, Harry N. Abrams, 1st, 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 308 pages. 397 illustrations, including 104 plates in full color. This beautiful volume is in very good shape with tight binding. Tanned cloth, front cover illustration; Stampede(1969). Looks as good as new.

Hardcover. Santa Cruz, CA, Flesk Publications, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 304 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Color illustrations. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. Harvey Dunn was one of twentieth century America's most powerful illustrators, painters and teachers. This comprehensive volume covers a major portion of his illustrations and paintings for the first time. Content includes illustration art, pioneer and western works, and his powerful World War I pieces inspired by his battlefield sketches. Also included are the rarely seen nudes, portraits, and murals. Paintings from museums and private collections showcase the full range of this talented American artist. For this book, many original paintings were tracked down and re-photographed in order to reintroduce the work of this important artist. Until now, most of Dunn's paintings and illustrations have been unavailable to the public in their original form. Locations of pictures in public collections are listed, as are the original publication dates and places. Additionally, a section is devoted to the artist's working and teaching methods. Also included is a reprinting of Dunn's "An Evening in the Classroom," compiled from notes made during critiques, passing on his inspirational teaching philosophy. A comprehensive list of Dunn's students with sample art is included as well.

Hardcover. New York, Harry N. Abrams, 1st, 1986, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 288 pages, illustrated throughout in color and b&w. Brown cloth, pictorial dust jacket. Beautiful copy in shrinkwrap. Like new. The first biography of the couple who created the landmark collection that is still the base of most American museums.